Caleb's Surgery - May 4th, 2012 Surgery Day part IV

12:15 or so - we got to leave the goofy waiting area and finally head down to recovery to be with our boy. He was out when we got there and his face around his mouth was swollen. Something I was not expecting was the fact that his tongue was swollen as well. It makes perfect sense, just wasn't expecting it.

He has a stitch that goes thru his tongue and into his cheek so that if he has breathing issues this afternoon into tonight, they can lightly lift the stitch to pull his tongue up and open the airway.


When we were preparing to leave recovery and "drive the racecar" up to our room, he got very agitated and sort of panicky.  I reached my arm down to rub my thumb on his cheek and he grabbed hold of my arm and gave it a very firm hug.


Perhaps a little selfish of me, but it felt great because we've been discussing the fact that this could set him back a ways in his trust of us.  However, you wouldn't have guessed it from that arm grab/hug!


Another thing that happened is we were trying to figure out, along with nurse John, if he was in pain or what was aggravating him.  We asked him if he had "owies" and he would clearly shake his head to say no.  We asked him another question that I already forgot, and he clearly shook his head to say no.  I eventually asked him if he was scared, and he VERY clearly shook his head to say yes.


Mom and I were also rubbing his cheeks and the top of his head and mom asked him if he liked daddy rubbing his head, and he shook his head to say yes.


I am so very happy and thankful that I stumbled upon that while in the courtroom in Changchun as it works every bit as good for him now as it did 5 months ago.


We spent about 1.5 hours in recovery with him and he's been sleeping in our room ever since, waking up occaisionally.




Here's the little cutey in recovery.  This was taken almost immediately as we got there.  Tons of crap all around him and he would occaisionally wake up agitated. Big surprise with all of that stuff hanging off of you, huh?



This is back up in our room. Pretty much the same position but with a lot less crap hanging off of him. Dr. C. George is keeping a keen eye on him (Thanks Gonsalves!!!).

We had a couple of visitors recently.  Perky is the hospital's mascot and Herky is apparently the mascot of some local team...  I can't recall who though...  Oh yes, the Iowa Hawkeyes!  Too bad Caleb didn't have his Marvin McNutt jersey on when they visited! 


When they came into the room, Caleb's eyes were open just a tiny slit as he had just kind of came too. It took him a second or two to focus on them and when he finally did, he sort of jumped and got up on his elbows.  He wasn't so keen on it and eventually started to whimper a bit. They left and he flopped back down as if to say, "What in the h3!! are you going to do to me next!?". 

It's now 4:50 and he's waking up.  Momma is asking him if he wants to go for a walk or stand up for a hug, sit in the chair and rock or any other thing.  He does not. He wants to lay in bed.


More updates as we get them...